Surrogates and Influencers Director (Remote)

GiveDirectly (GD) aims to reshape international giving and millions of lives by providing cash grants directly to the worlds poorest. The Brookings Institution estimates that $70B of cash transfers would be required to eliminate the poverty gap; the aid sector currently spends $135B each year much of it on evidence-free interventions. GiveDirectly wants to change that establishing cash transfers as a benchmark for foreign aid as the index fund is a benchmark for the financial industry and in the process accelerating the end of extreme poverty.

GD has raised over $1B since launching in 2011 and delivered cash to more than 2 million people in 15 different countries. Weve also supported large-scale experimental research that indicates strong recipient impact of our programs. As a result GD has been celebrated as one of the most innovative non-profit companies by Fast Company while the growing cash transfer movement (and GDs leading role within it) have been featured in the New York Times Magazine This American Life Foreign Affairs and The Economist.

Our culture is candid analytical agile and non-hierarchical. Our global team of 150 and country operations teams of 650 span 21 different countries and 69 languages. From software engineers to seasoned humanitarian workers management consultants to public servants researchers to field operations -- its an incredible group of people.

Our values are central and deliberately opinionated. We genuinely center the people we serve in our decision-making and strive to build an ambitious dynamic and high-performing environment. We strongly encourage you to read through our values carefully if they reflect how you like to work and energize you this could be a great fit.

We work hard to create an environment in which all our team members can thrive succeed and grow. We support high ownership flexibility take care of each other have fun and create professional growth opportunities.

About the role

GiveDirectly is seeking a strategic well-connected Surrogates and Influencers Director to lead and scale our external earned and sponsored partnerships. This role owns the strategy relationship management and execution of these campaigns.

We define surrogates and influencers as anyone who has an audience (following on social YouTube podcast Substack/newsletter faculty etc) that is not part of a traditional media organization (NPR NYTimes).

Meaningful mentions from trusted public figures are one of GiveDirectlys most important communications channels. By growing our work here you will help further our mission to end extreme poverty and improve crisis response by transferring cash directly to people in need.

Our past efforts have been a mix of paid and unpaid some with fundraising appeals and others just amplification/mention: Substackers podcasters Mr. Beast Ahmed Shaikh Elsa Majimbo Rutger Bregman.

Your goal would be to leverage meaningful endorsements that maximize reach/awareness to high-value audiences (those able to make $1m gifts especially in tech/finance industries) helping initiate funding conversations.

You will lead a small team and partner closely with Earned Media Marketing and Fundraising.

This role is ideal for someone who combines strong relationship management across the thought leader & creator media landscape with the creative instincts to turn those partnerships into compelling high-impact campaigns.

• Reports to: VP Marketing
• Level: Director
• Location: Remote with preference for San Francisco / New York / LA / London for in-person networking
• Time zone: the selected candidate will need to overlap at least 2 hours with East Africa Time working hours some working days.
• Travel: 38 trips annually (team retreats partner visits events and/or program visits)

What youll do

• Own our surrogate strategy: Improving our approach & measurement ensuring we are pursuing best tactics across a portfolio of approaches and relationships.
  Build new and existing surrogate relationships: Proactively identify vet and cultivate relationships with creators and public figures across GiveDirectlys cause areas at scale and with speed.
• Oversee surrogate campaigns (earned and sponsored): Ensure high quality execution of formal surrogate campaigns from briefing through post-campaign analysis.
• Content strategy / creative direction: Developing briefs guiding creators on messaging and aligning content to GiveDirectlys voice/mission.
• Conduct reporting and measurement: Define and own the KPI framework for the surrogates program tracking reach engagement and donation attribution.
• Manage and develop a team of two (Surrogates Manager and Surrogates Associate): setting clear priorities and actively coaching the team for continual improvement.
• Understand social trends and what drives the connection between the surrogate and GiveDirectly: Maintain a current understanding of the creator economy emerging platforms shifting audience behaviors and what motivates public figures to champion causes

What success looks like in 1218 months

Deep surrogate relationships built by cause area (force ranked):

1. Extreme poverty ourcore product focused on lifting people out of extreme poverty (today this work is all in Africa) this is where web donations default to
2. Emergency cash wereresponding to headline-grabbing crises with a moonshot of delivering cash in 5 days to any crisis anywhere in the world
3. Maternal / child health this product focuses on optimizing child and maternal health based off recent evidence showing child mortality can drop by almost half
4. US poverty work in the United States focuses onpoverty reduction and emergency cash. Most surrogate partnerships will focus on the latter

Unique post donate experience for surrogate supporters: both surrogates and their supporters get unique content driven experience (interactive reports tech driven experience exclusive content)

High performing team collaborating internally and externally: high performance team that has built trust internally and externally with surrogates

Test 2-4 big bets: we have ambition to launch exciting and large campaigns with surrogates to propose our works. At 18 months you will have tested multiple bets (and hopefully identified) identified 1 to scale

What youll bring

• 6 years of influencer or surrogate related experience (head of influencer marketing booker talent manager partnership manager media relations etc.) a deep understanding of the creators (podcasters journalists Substackers YouTubers etc) and public intellectuals (tech finance econ etc.) and a proven track record of success.
• Autonomous with high operational rigor: A self-starter comfortable operating in ambiguity with strong project management skills and the ability to move fast without sacrificing quality or follow-through.
• Exceptional communicator & relationship builder: Ability to brief and inspire creators while representing GiveDirectlys mission authentically across a wide range of voices and audiences maintaining a relationship as peers/friends rather than transactional arrangements.
• Exceptional alignment withGiveDirectly Values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence problem solving project management follow-through and fostering inclusivity. We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the low-income and/or historically marginalized communities that we serve.

Compensation

At GiveDirectly we strive to pay our employees generously and equitably. We use an accredited third party salary aggregator to calculate what we believe to be competitive pay based on role location and cost of living. We also have a no negotiation policy to ensure we are paying staff equitably across roles. Read more about our compensation philosophyhere.

Unless otherwise noted the benefits stipend may be used to cover benefits or taken as additional taxable income.

United States

• Base Salary: $128000
• Bonus at Target Performance: 15% ($19200 with potential for upside. For reference with the organizations current performance multiplier this amount would be $22464 in 2025)
• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: $147200
• Annual Benefits Stipend: $21393

United Kingdom

• Base Salary: 87500
• Bonus at Target Performance: 15% (13125 with potential for upside. For reference with the organizations current performance multiplier this amount would be 15356.25 in 2025)
• Estimated Total Compensation at Target: 100625
• Annual Benefits Stipend: 2760

NOTE: this role has been posted under different cities at various points to attract more candidates but is just for one open fully remote position. If you applied for one you do not need to apply any others under these names.

#LI-REMOTE

Working at GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to the persons race color religion national origin sex sexual orientation age marital status veteran status disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Flagging for US applicants: We invite you to Know Your Rights as an applicant.

Commitment to Safeguarding

As a global organization working with communities to eliminate extreme poverty GiveDirectly takes the safeguarding of its recipients staff and partners seriously. To that end GiveDirectly is a member of theMisconduct Disclosure Scheme and will systematically check with previous employers about any abuse or misconduct related matters involving potential new hires. We may also employ other robust pre-hire screens including in-depth reference checks criminal background checks and sanctions screens.

These efforts help us continue to build and maintain trust with the communities we work with and prevent abuse to our recipients and staff.

**GD is committed to observing all local national and international laws that protect people and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of zero tolerance when it comes to preventing reporting or responding to any form of abuse or exploitation. and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.**

Reasonable Accommodations

We are committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible work environment. If you require any accommodations during the application or interview process or to perform the essential functions of the role please email us at with the email subject Accommodation Needed. We will work with you to ensure reasonable accommodations are made to support your needs.

Want to put your best foot forward on your GiveDirectly application Take a look at our Candidate Application Prep Guide!